


Forget-Me-Nots

by OwlEspresso



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 16:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14958260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlEspresso/pseuds/OwlEspresso
Summary: "When you're gone, I'll carry the remnants of you with me, like a sacred torch."





	Forget-Me-Nots

**Author's Note:**

> My writing blog is [HERE](https://owlespresso.tumblr.com/).

Iantha is fourteen when she realizes life won’t work out for her. Her hands, covered in bandages, shake with the power bursting underneath her skin. She can feel each throb of it, begging to be released. But she can’t. She can’t because she’s afraid of combat. She can’t because every time she tries to use her powers, she gets flashbacks and migraines and everything piles up at once in her head. Raven does her best to train her, but nothing works. 

She sits, holding her head in her hands, mind roving over life can possibly be. There are people looking for her. Most of them not for good reasons. If she continues like this, she’ll be hunted for her entire life. Raven has told her. And she believes Raven, trusts Raven. 

Raven, who took her in when she was lost and alone in the forest. Raven, who is so much stronger and braver than she could ever be. 

The tent flap parts. Iantha shuts her eyes tight to prevent her migraine from worsening. The flap closes and once again she’s immersed in dimmed darkness. Raven is here, and she feels better, safer. Iantha hasn’t seen her family or friends from school in years. She doesn’t want to, knowing that people coming after her could easily find them and do terrible things to them.

“This is never going to change,” Iantha lifts her head and looks at Raven with a ghost of a smile, “It won’t. My head won’t let me use them—the powers,” Raven doesn’t look like she knows what to say. Raven, who has always met adversaries and challenges with brute force rather than tender emotion. Raven, who she wants to stay with her. 

For someone who lives in a camp of bandits, Iantha has always done her best to be optimistic, a beacon of hope for those around her. “I feel colder everyday, too. I don’t know why. I think I’m just tired. But I’ve been tired for a really long time, Raven.”

“You’re just giving up, then?” Raven’s expression becomes neutral and Iantha swallows, feeling tears prick at the corner of her eyes. No teenager should ever be thinking about killing themselves. Young girls should be excited about the future that stretches wide in front of them. At the sight of her tears, something in Raven’s expression softens. She never cries around anyone else. 

“I’m making a choice,” Iantha’s mouth goes dry when she says it. Sobs shake her chest and are smothered in her throat, “I’m going to die.” Raven steps closer and puts a hand on her shoulder. Iantha doesn’t see her hesitate in the motion, unsure of what she should do. Raven has never been a mother, never been the type to nurture and love unconditionally. 

“No. You’re not.” When Raven speaks, it’s quietly and without conviction. It’s the most unsure Iantha has ever heard her.

“Yeah, I am,” Iantha rests her head against the woman’s side, eyes shutting, a small smile on her trembling lips, “And I wanna think about you, before I do,” Her voice breaks and it’s a pitiful sound. Raven’s fingers curl tight around her shoulder. She takes a few, shuddering breaks. Tears roll down her cheeks. “And when it happens.”

“I just want you to remember I existed.”


End file.
